Cleaning with Microfiber…No Sprays or Chemicals Required!

How would you like to……..

I can see all of you shaking your head in the affirmative….so I’m going to tell you a SIMPLE way to do this…..

Invest in some of these!

Wait a minute Jillee! You said I could KEEP more of my $$! Trust me…after reading this post you will not only be willing to pay for these babies…but you’ll realize that in the long run you ARE saving $$!

A few weeks ago one of my regular readers (visitors? I never know how to refer to all you beautiful people who read my posts….help me out here!), Denise in Ark, gave us a GREAT rundown on how to efficiently and effectively clean a bathroom. (She cleaned professionally for 20 years…and let me tell you she has got it down to a system!)
In the process of learning from the master…I was introduced to the wonders of microfiber cleaning cloths!I don’t know where I’ve been…but apparently I completely missed the boat on cleaning with microfiber. But LOTS of you left comments praising this wonder of modern science….including Jen, who said microfiber was now her go-to method of cleaning….so much so she’s gone into business spreading the word to the world selling a product called Norwex. :-) And lucky for you…she wants to make a couple of you “believers” in microfiber too and has generously donated some of their most popular cloths as a giveaway. More on that in a minute.

Since I had literally never cleaned with a microfiber cloth before (I’m such a newb!), when the cloths from Jen arrived I was at a loss as to what to do with them! Sad as that sounds. So I did a little reading up and decided I would put the multipurpose Enviro Clothto the test. And boy did I have a TEST for it!!! I’m not talking any ORDINARY test…I was going to see what this little microfiber cloth was REALLY made of. I’m talking EXTREME DUSTING!

I’ve been working on cleaning and organizing my mudroom/laundry room lately and happened to notice that I had put my rotary cutter up on the top of one of two small cabinets in the room. Since I was contemplating a cute paper craft I was dying to do…I decided to take it down and put it to good use. WHOA! It had obviously been up there QUITE AWHILE because it was COVERED in a THICK layer of dust! Actually, I don’t think you could technically call it just DUST now…I think we’d graduated to DIRT at this point.

I was pretty certain this isn’t what this pretty little baby blue cloth was designed to tackle…but what the heck…no skin off MY nose if it didn’t work. I didn’t even bother using any water of the cloth…I just figured that would literally muddy up the task.

So…literally 2 minutes later….here is that same rotary cutter. Not a SPECK of dust anywhere on it. And, just as important, no dust flying all over either. It was literally all “stuck” to the cloth! Impressive. Really impressive. But I wasn’t done yet. The rotary cutter was just the warm-up act to this:

Now that is some SERIOUS dust/dirt!!! I was once again quite sure this was a job for something MUCH BIGGER and MORE POWERFUL than this cute little blue towel.

Ummm……do you hear that crunching sound?? That, my friends, is the sound of me EATING MY WORDS. See for yourselves.

After “dusting”. That one cloth trapped ALL THAT DIRT!!

Top of cabinet “AFTER”. Yep, it was painted WHITE under all that gunk!

The same little blue cloth after simply SHAKING IT OUT on my back step!I can almost hear it saying “Is that all you got?!” lol. To which I replied….“Nope, I’ve got one more JUST LIKE IT on the other end of the room!

BEFORE

AFTER

The little microfiber cloth that could!!!

Well, are you impressed yet? I haven’t even TOUCHED on the stuff their WINDOW cloth can do! I think I’m going to save that for you to find out for yourself. The Window Cloth allows you to clean windows, mirrors, jewelry, and shiny surfaces with only water!

As I mentioned above…Jen has kindly donated some of the most popular cloths they sell for two lucky winners! It’s called the Norwex Basic Package and its’ retail value is $30.99. The package includes 1 Enviro Cloth and 1 Window Cloth.

Comments

First, Jill, you are one brave woman showing us the top of your cabinets! I salute you!! Second, I totally agree with your comments about the Norwex cloths. They rock at cleaning. Now, if I could only figure out a way for the cloths to clean without me… :) So glad Jen shared Norwex with you & you were impressed.

Hope I win! These cloths look amazing. I've seen demos on QVC and HSN, but never tried them before because of my slim wallet. I've done the Twitter and Facebook thing, so all I have left are my fingers to cross!

First I've never been one to clean, but after I read your tip on cleaning a bathroom last week I ran to Ross & bought a pkg of microfiber cloths! I'm truly amazed! Now I'm hoping to win a pkg of these "new" microfiber cloths! Crossing my toes & fingers to win these!

The Norwex microfiber clothes are super fine so they can hold more bacteria. The enviro Jillee used, while useful for dry dusting, actually is most useful as a wet cloth for your home. It contains silver, which kills the harbored bacteria so it can be used several times and not breed bacteria, like the dollar store microfiber cloth would. Norwex has other dusting products that utilize static for efficient dry cleaning. They are expensive, but they are well made.

Microfiber cloths are certainly useful, but they have their drawbacks too. You can't shake the dust out of them, so you need several and to wash them frequently. Also, after many washings they start to clump up and are no longer useful for dusting. They are not especially good for drying things or on large glass/mirror areas where they do cause streaks. Sometimes microfiber is good, but you still need absorbant cotton rags to do a good job. Just like magic erasers, they're useful but do have limitations.

In response to why these microfiber cloths are more expensive, there are a few reasons. (1) In order for a cloth to be consider "microfiber", the fibers have to be 1/6 the size of a human hair. The Norwex microfiber cloths are 1/100 the size of human hair, therefore they are much smaller (and more fibers are packed into each cloth through the Norwex knitting process) so they are higher quality than typical store bought cloths. (2) Norwex microfiber cloths have a silver agent embedded into the fibers. Silver is a natural antibacterial agent that breaks down the dirt and bacteria picked up in the cloth. It (naturally) breaks down the bacterial order, mold and mildew within the cloth, so you're not moving those contaminants from surface to surface as you clean. (3) This also means that you don't have to launder them as often as other cloths, since the silver is breaking down the "gunk" when you simple rinse them out with water. Because of the high quality of the cloths, they have a 2-year warranty from Norwex.

In response to the question about not being good for drying things or on glass/mirror areas, Norwex has the window cloth (which is included in this giveaway) that works great for windows, mirrors or any shiny surface. Simply spray water on the surface and wipe it dry with the window cloth. No streaks! A lot of streaks that are typically left on shiny surfaces are actually the remnants of the cleaning products (like Windex). With the window cloth, all you're using is water, so there is nothing left to leave streaks – any excess water will evaporate and leave a streak-free finish.

Hope this is helpful! And thanks, Jill, for the chance to share about Norwex!

Thanks for this info ; I have cheap microfiber towels and for what I use them for they are ok . I want to get some of these and try them on the windows and 'big' jobs ! I like you on facebook now ; follow you on twitter and tweeted about it ……….

[…] grime and gunk. Can’t really spray it on the whole tub or shower. I’ve also used my new AMAZING microfiber cleaning cloths to wipe down counter tops, sinks and mirrors with great success! But I really hadn’t found a […]